Will Washington leave Oregon 'holding the bag' on Columbia River Crossing? PolitiFact Oregon

Protesters came to a Vancouver City Council to fight the idea of tolls on Columbia River Crossing, the new bridge that will link Portland and Vancouver. Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian

Lawmakers
in Oregon and Washington are expected to vote this year on local
funding for the Columbia River Crossing, raising the stakes of the
political wrangling around the replacement of the Interstate 5 bridge.

Oregon's Gov. John Kitzhaber included $450 million for the bridge in his proposed 2013-15 budget. The total cost of the bridge is estimated at $3.5 billion.

Metro
Councilor Bob Stacey says Oregon could wind up paying more, thanks to provisions
of a 2012 bill passed by the Washington Legislature. He wrote in a memo to the council: "If Oregon's
Legislature simply authorizes $450 million for the CRC, it will be
implicitly accepting Washington's limitations, which will leave Oregon
holding the bag for a great deal more cost responsibility — or with a
great deal less from the CRC project for our communities."

Mega-projects like interstate bridges are
complicated, but we were surprised to hear that something Washington
did could leave Oregon "holding the bag."

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